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ITEM EX8 - ANNEX 2

EXECUTIVE – 22 JANUARY 2002

IDeA PEER REV

VISIT TO OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL, 8-12 OCTOBER 2001

Summary

Oxfordshire County Council stands on the brink of change. After sixteen years during which none of the three main political groups had a majority, a joint administration has now been formed. This has enabled members to agree on new political structures and place themselves in a position to offer strong political leadership. In addition, a new chief executive took up his post in May 2001. He is committed to raising the performance of the council and to have it recognised as a leading-edge authority by 2005. The plans include the establishment of a refocused corporate management team capable of offering support to the executive and strong managerial leadership for the whole organisation and to partners and the local community. These changes have brought with them renewed enthusiasm, internally and externally, that the council will now energise itself and begin to respond to the variety of new requirements that have been placed on it by the modernisation agenda, many of which to date have received an inadequate response. The review team was impressed by the strong commitment of many of the staff and their desire to provide good and responsive services to the public. For many years they have operated under the difficult conditions of lack of leadership, limited resources, and a lack of a clear direction. They provide a good foundation for improvement. However, in order for the council to achieve its ambitions it needs to:

• agree a corporate vision and a clear set of priorities

• provide strong political and managerial leadership
• introduce a performance and project management framework
• breakdown departmentalism and build corporate integrity
• harnessing new technology to support the council’s strategic aims
• promote more active partnership working
• unleash the creativity of staff and celebrate their success with enthusiasm

• agree a vision and a clear and limited number of priorities
• ensure they are communicated widely internally and externally
• allocate resources in line with the priorities
• monitor performance in achieving the objectives

• ensure that the new political arrangements achieve their objectives of providing strong political leadership and effective decision making
• review the current role and composition of the county council management team with a view to strengthening the corporate centre and ensuring it comprises of directors who are committed to a new corporate approach
• ensure adequate support is available to both leading members, the chief executive and directors to enable them to perform effectively
• recognise, communicate and celebrate successes in the council to encourage motivation, innovation and creativity

• introduce a performance management culture and framework which sets SMART targets, taking into account agreed priorities, and regularly monitors and reviews performance against them
• implement a project management approach to both large scale changes as well as smaller projects, such as Best Value reviews, so that adequate resources are provided, timescales agreed, and monitoring and review of progress is undertaken on a regular basis
• improve support to the chief executive and corporate management team, and to the administration to enable tracking of progress against key political and corporate objectives

• review current partnership activity to ensure there is adequate co-ordination and that all partnerships have clear objectives and are able to deliver them
• adopt a more active role, bringing partners together but providing all with real opportunities to participate and make a contribution
• ensure the development of a community strategy which is developed through real participation of partners and local people and which takes full account of their priorities

1. The visit to Oxfordshire County Council was part of the national Local Government Improvement Programme of peer reviews in local authorities, arranged by the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA). The purpose of the visit is to help the local authority assess its current achievements and its capacity to change. The basis for the assessment is a specially constructed benchmark of the ideal, fully effective local authority. This focuses on three key organisational themes: Leadership, Democratic and Community Engagement and Performance Management.
2. The context for the programme is the significant change in local government, which is causing most councils to consider how they should respond. Peer review offers a supportive approach, undertaken by friends, albeit "critical friends". It is not an inspection. The intention is to help a council identify its current strengths as much as its weaknesses.
3. For a local authority, a peer review visit is the beginning of an ongoing change process. This is taken forward through the preparation of an improvement plan to address the areas where the team has recommended action. The IDeA will advise on the preparation of this plan and monitor its implementation through follow-up visits carried out over an eighteen month period.
4. The background to the programme and the methodology are described fully in "Improving From Within: Local Government Improvement Project Final Report and Recommendations", published by the Local Government Association in February 1999.

5. The members of the peer review team were:

• Lin Homer, Chief Executive, Suffolk County Council
• Chris Manning-Press, Executive Member (Conservative), Essex County Council
• Mike Nichols, Executive Member (Liberal Democrat), Cornwall County Council
• David Maxted, Director of Operational Services, Northumberland County Council
• Gill Lucas, Principal Consultant, KPMG
• Jane Martin, Principal Consultant, Improvement and Development Agency
• Adele Wilter, Review Manager, Improvement and Development Agency

5. The programme for the week was organised in advance and included a wide variety of activities designed to enable members of the team to meet and talk to a spectrum of internal and external stakeholders. These included:

• discussions with the political leadership and senior management of the council
• workshops for frontline staff, middle managers and members
• meetings with council members from all parties
• discussions with trade unions
• visits to front line service delivery centres
• meetings with external partners, and voluntary sector and business representatives
• discussions with members of the public
• attendance at council meetings

5. The team was very appreciative of the warm welcome and excellent hospitality provided by the council during their stay, and would like to thank all involved for their valuable contributions throughout the week. The programme for the week was very well organised and co-ordinated and we received wholehearted support and co-operation from everyone we met.
6. The feedback on the last day of the review week reported on the key messages. This report constitutes a more detailed written account structured around three main organisational themes of Leadership, Democratic and Community Engagement, and Performance Management and the core organisational competencies supporting each of these.

9. The county of Oxfordshire lies midway between southern England and the Midlands. There is a rich variety of countryside with the Cotswold Hills to the west, the Chiltern Hills to the east and the Wessex Downs to the south.
10. It is a county of great diversity with extensive countryside, busy market towns, as well as the City of Oxford, home to the world class Oxford University. The number of historical, architectural and natural attractions draws significant numbers of visitors to the area.
11. It has a population of approximately 626,000 that is expanding rapidly as people move from the "inner south east" to the "outer south east".
12. The majority of the population enjoy a good quality of life but there are also pockets of poverty and disadvantage throughout the county, with the very young and very old being the most vulnerable.
13. The county is economically prosperous, with manufacturing and service industries geared towards high skilled, high value-added occupations. Some of the most advanced scientific research companies are based in the county, but there are also more traditional industries including farming, car manufacturing and publishing. It currently enjoys full employment but this brings with it problems of recruitment and retention of employees.
14. There are five district councils within the county borders: one urban, Oxford City, with the others, South Oxfordshire, West Oxfordshire, Cherwell and Vale of White Horse, predominantly rural.
15. The council of 70 councillors is currently comprised of 26 Conservatives, 24 Labour, 18 Liberal Democrats and 2 Green Party. Following the June, 2001 elections the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats reached an agreement to form a joint administration, the first time in sixteen years two groups have been able to agree to work together as an administration. Prior to this all committees were chaired on a rota basis by each group.
16. From 5 November 2001 a joint executive of five Conservatives and 4 Liberal Democrats, with a Conservative leader and Liberal Democrat deputy will begin operating under new political arrangements for the first time.
17. The council employs approximately 11,500 full time equivalent staff dispersed over 1,000 locations across the county. It is the largest employer in Oxfordshire.
18. The budget for 2001/2002 is £433m. The county is the fourth lowest spending county in the country with the second lowest SSA.
19. The organisational structure currently comprises seven service departments. The directors, together with the chief executive, make up the county council management team.

20. There is widespread support for the new political and management arrangements that have recently been put in place. After a long period of weak political leadership, a consequence of none of the three main political parties having a majority, there are now high hopes that the joint administration will offer a clear direction and effective decision making.
21. The appointment of a new chief executive further raises the prospect that the council will be able to move forward and meet the wide range of expectations that flow from the government’s modernisation agenda.
22. The requirement to establish a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) and develop a community strategy has been recognised. Planning is well advanced and agreement has been reached with the district councils on an approach that will facilitate a coordinated and integrated approach across the county.
23. The council is demonstrating a high level of commitment to race equality, by for example:

• working towards Level 3 of the Commission for Racial Equality’s standard
• establishing a successor body to the Ethnic Minorities Consultative Committee to engage representatives of the ethnic minority communities in the county
• developing a Racial Equality Action Plan 1999-2002

24. The council’s role in developing the Integrated Transport Strategy is widely recognised and regarded.

Issues to Consider

24. There has been an absence of a clear vision and agreed set of key priorities for the council. The Best Value Performance Plan lists three aims, fifteen local and national priorities and ten strategic priorities, which are not clearly recognisable and easily understood either internally or externally.
25. Efforts are, however, now being made to address this. A document entitled ‘Raising our Performance an Organisational Strategy 2001-2005’ has just been produced by the chief executive, following consultation with members and staff. It contains a new vision, a set of values and priorities for the council that will need to be widely communicated, and commitment from members and staff gained, to ensure they guide future decisions and actions.
26. As the development of the LSP commenced with negotiations between the districts, external partners have not yet been involved and some are unaware of the plans being made. There is therefore a need to inform and involve them as soon as possible. Similarly local people will need to be consulted at the early stages of the development of a community strategy to ensure that any priorities eventually agreed have been developed from the bottom up, thereby ensuring it responds to local people’s concerns.
27. Although the council successfully completed its Implementing Electronic Government statement, there is not a clear vision for e-government and real commitment to it, as evidenced by the low level of investment in information communications technology to date.
28. There is a widespread view internally, and externally from stakeholders, and shared by the review team, that the corporate management team has not yet developed a team approach to the management of the council. As a result of a history of extensive delegation to departments, each chief officer is accustomed to acting primarily in the interests of their own departments rather than those of the whole organisation.
29. This has also led to a high degree of departmentalism, and a lack of commitment to cross-departmental working.
30. The council has tended to be introspective, focusing on its own internal matters rather than looking outward and being active in attempting to seek out and learn from good practice in other local authorities and organisations.
31. Some views were expressed that the council has been too Oxfordcentric, with too great a focus on Oxford City at the expense of some of the rural areas.


Change Management

Strengths


32. Although the council was the last county in the south east to adopt new political arrangements, leading members have now accepted the need for change and are enthusiastic about the potential for improved political leadership they offer.
33. The Raising our Performance document is a recognition of the need for change and includes a four year work programme to bring this about. As it is implemented, there will be a need to ensure that there are opportunities for greater discussion and involvement by members and staff, with regular monitoring and review to ensure it is able to respond to ongoing changes and needs.
34. During 1999-2000 a leadership development programme titled Leadership 2000 was attended by nearly all of the council’s top 160 senior managers. Its objective was to equip senior managers with improved leadership skills and behaviours which in turn would help the organisation achieve its objectives corporately. Despite the number of difficulties experienced with the content and delivery of the programme, many senior managers felt that the concept was a good one that needed to be built on.


Issues to Consider


35. There has been a reluctance amongst some directors, senior managers and members to embrace change. For example, some directors, while verbally agreeing to decisions made at the corporate management team, fail to implement the required actions, while some members remain uncommitted to the planned new political arrangements. Consequently, as one interviewee commented to the review team "the council have lumbered on like a dinosaur". In comparison with many other local authorities, limited progress has thus been made in many areas of the modernisation agenda, for example developing a corporate culture, community leadership, and e-government.
36. Best Value is not being recognised as a change driver and is widely viewed as too process driven and mechanistic

Motivation

Strengths

37. A number of departments have received nationally recognised awards, including two Charter Marks, Investors in People (IiP) in all but two departments, and a Beacon Council award for competitiveness and enterprise.
38. The pro-active efforts made by the chief executive during his first few months to go out and about to meet and talk to staff was greatly appreciated.
39. The potential of staff communications to further motivate and value staff can be further enhanced.

    Issues to Consider

40. Successful achievements of staff and service teams are inadequately celebrated and communicated which contributes to a lack of enthusiasm and energy in many parts of the authority.
41. Too great a focus on perceived resource constraints has led to inertia and diverted effort from improving services.
42. Departmentalism, as displayed by both members and officers, has hindered a more corporate approach to improving service delivery. For example an innovative Children and Young People’s Sub-Committee, established to support the joint planning and delivery of services by Education and Social Services, has had some of its efforts undermined by the parent committees.
43. Members make insufficient efforts to visit and listen to staff across the council. For example, a librarian employed by the council for over ten years stated that she had never seen a councillor in any library in which she has worked.

Innovation and Creativity

Strengths

44. The council has been involved in a range of innovative projects, including Venturefest 365, designed to gain international recognition for the economic profile of the area; the development of an Autosportive Engineering course in place of a standard engineering course; European Social Funding for education services in Banbury; and a planned Broadband Wide Area Network to be developed throughout the county together with partners in the public and private sector.
45. Trading Standards innovative Internet 24-hour information service has won two major awards.
46. An Innovation Fund of £100,000 has been established to provide support for innovative projects in departments. However care needs to be taken to ensure that this funding is allocated to truly innovative projects and is not used to supplement limited mainstream funding.

    Issues to Consider

47. Overall the review team concluded that the culture of the council is risk averse. New staff are quickly inducted into the Oxfordshire way of doing things, which is traditional and often based on historical informal networks between people. They are therefore discouraged from questioning current practice and from suggesting and implementing new ideas.
48. Although all Best Value review teams include a member and an external, independent representative to contribute to the challenge element and to provide alternate perspectives and ideas, this input is generally insufficient to provide fundamental and far reaching challenge to the current mode of service delivery.

    Alliance Building
    
    Strengths

49. All council chief executives within the county are meeting on a regular basis in an attempt to ensure that policy and planning are integrated and co-ordinated. The particular focus at present is the development of the LSP and of the community strategy.
50. The council’s role in developing and supporting the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership has been recognised by the local business community who appreciate this input in responding to the particular challenges faced in an economically prosperous and growing region.
51. An Education Action Zone has been established to tackle truancy and pupil behaviour problems.
52. Efforts are made to keep parish councils informed of county issues through, for example, the production of a monthly news digest, printed on one A4 sheet to facilitate notice board display.
53. Strong links have been established with Europe through, for example the appointment of a European officer, the production of a bi-monthly newsletter, European Update, and the establishment of an office in Brussels in partnership with other Thames Valley local authorities.


Issues to Consider


54. Although there are a wide range and number of partnerships operating across the county, there is a need to ensure greater co-ordination amongst them to avoid duplication, ensure they all have clear objectives, and to exploit opportunities for the development of joint projects.
55. While there is some feeling that the council dominates some partnerships, in other instances, for example in the fragmented health arena, there is a desire for the council to take a stronger leadership role.
56. Although the voluntary sector appreciates the funding support it receives from the council, it also expressed a desire for a greater degree of engagement and commitment by elected councillors.
57. There is a feeling amongst some key partners, including health and the police, that they are being ignored while the district and county chief executives are meeting to agree their joint working arrangements. It is thus important that other key partners are brought on board as soon as possible.
58. Although some members have regular contact and relationships with their town and parish councils, others are less regularly in contact with them which leaves them feeling inadequately informed of county plans.


Democratic and Community Engagement Democratic Representation

Strengths


59. Despite the delay in agreeing new political arrangements, there is now enthusiastic support for the planned changes amongst leading members.
60. Good training opportunities are being provided to members. A number of externally facilitated seminars have been held to help them understand and prepare for their new roles. Other training opportunities on a variety of subjects are also arranged.
61. A new monthly Members’ Bulletin is being developed to meet the information requirements of the new structures. It will therefore include details of all meetings of the executive and scrutiny committees, together with news and decisions from each executive portfolio.
62. There has been good member involvement in some high level and important partnership groups, for example the Health Improvement Plan group and the Police Consultative Group.
63. Many members are active in their local wards.

    Issues to Consider

64. In the absence of any overall control of the council during the past sixteen years it has not been possible for members of the three main groups to gain experience of being in control. By their own admission, they have been operating with "three groups in opposition". Having a joint administration and introducing new structures is a major change for all and pro-active efforts will need to be made to ensure all members, particularly non-executive, are supported to adjust to their new roles and the opportunity for strong and clear political decision making.
65. Most members have traditionally had a fairly low profile, both internally and externally. Surveys, and the workshop conducted as part of the review programme, indicated that few members of the public are able to identify their county councillors. As in many two-tier authority areas, confusion about the roles of district and county councillors is also evident.
66. Clear political objectives have not been adequately communicated with the consequence that there is a lack of knowledge about what the council is trying to achieve.
67. Administrative support for members, for example secretarial help and the provision of IT, is inadequate to enable them to perform their role effectively.
68. The council needs to consider area arrangements, which would provide greater opportunities for local people and local areas to have their priorities and needs addressed.
Scrutiny Strengths
69. Five scrutiny committees will be established as part of the new political structures. All non-executive members will serve on one of them and initially Labour members will chair them.
70. A good level of support is being planned for the committees. This will include a budget of £100,000 per annum and the appointment of two officers dedicated to the scrutiny function.
71. Member support for the Best Value programme is evidenced by the establishment of a special Best Value committee which agrees the scope of each review at the start and considers the recommendations at the end. One member is also allocated to each review team.
Issues to Consider  
72. Unlike many other local authorities, the council has had no time to pilot scrutiny. It is therefore important to recognise the challenge this will pose and the consequent need to undertake immediate preparatory work to ensure that all members understand the role of scrutiny and are provided with opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge that will be required. Learning from those local authorities who have longer experience will speed up the process and enable them to avoid mistakes made by others.


Customer and Citizen Focus

Strengths


73. The council delivers a number of good quality services. The proportion of people satisfied with the overall service provided by the authority is higher than the average of the highest performing county councils whom MORI have surveyed. In addition, in the 1999 MORI survey of Oxfordshire residents, users rated Social Services and Education excellent, a rating far better than the majority of counties surveyed by MORI.
74. The Fire Service and Trading Standards are also well regarded by local residents and businesses.
75. Over 90 per cent of schools buy back education services indicating a high level of satisfaction with the quality of these services
    
    .
Issues to Consider


76. A history of chronic under investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has resulted in limited opportunities for customers to access council services and information electronically. For example, the website is underdeveloped with no transactional capabilities and some outdated information content. This has, however, been recognised and actions are in hand to redevelop and substantially improve it. In addition, while some libraries have had electronic catalogues since 1996, other libraries are still awaiting this provision, leaving librarians without any records of their stock.
77. There is a need to improve co-ordination of service delivery between the county and district and parish councils. One town council mentioned that in their town there were three different levels of grass as different contractors are responsible for the cutting of different but adjacent areas.
78. There is inadequate information for the public about how to comment on or complain about services. For example there is an absence of readily available leaflets in the main reception area in County Hall.
79. In addition the council is not taking the opportunity to learn from complaints. Although the review team was informed that the latest complaints monitoring report was currently being prepared, the last such report covered the period 1998/99.

Communication (with Customers and Citizens)

Strengths

80. The council demonstrates a pro-active approach to communicating with the public. It produces a range of high quality news sheets on a wide range of issues. Examples include Business News, Environment Now and a Who and Why guide to key council members and officers.
81. Each department has a designated communications officer who has received training and is supported through a corporate Communications Group. An informative and useful publication Going Public 2001 a guide to getting your work the recognition it deserves has been produced by the council’s Information and Communications Unit to offer further advice and guidance to departments.
82. A Communications Strategy was agreed for 1999/2000 and is currently being revised and updated.
83. The press and other local media reported good relationships with the council, particularly with the corporate information and communications unit.


Issues to Consider


84. The departmental and devolved nature of the council has resulted in departments producing their own range of information sheets for the public. This has resulted in a proliferation of different documents and an absence of a corporate newsletter.
85. In addition, the 1999/2000 Communications Strategy identifies different core messages for each department. The consequence is that there are few corporate messages being consistently disseminated, resulting in the potential for confusion and the failure of the public to recognise the council as a corporate whole.
86. The five year Best Value review programme does not include a review of communications, one of the more common crosscutting reviews undertaken by other local authorities. Such a review could be valuable in identifying the current range of external communication by the council and in investigating opportunities for a more co-ordinated, efficient, and corporate approach.



Consultation and participation

Strengths


87. The council has recognised the importance of consultation and has conducted a range of consultation exercises, including a comprehensive resident’s survey in 1999/2000 conducted by MORI, a range of events to canvass opinion on new political structures, and wide ranging consultation on the Integrated Transport and Cultural Strategies.
88. In addition a skilled Corporate Consultation Officer has been appointed to help departments improve the knowledge and skills of staff undertaking consultation exercises, a Citizen’s Panel of 1,000 local people established, and a Consultation Strategy agreed.
Issues to Consider
89. The need to co-ordinate consultation has been recognised. A system has thus been established to ensure this but its success depends on co-operation from all departments and this has as yet not been forthcoming.
90. Consultation has tended to be professionally dominated. The belief that professional officers know best prevails and thus, even when feedback is received, it is sometimes dismissed in favour of the so-called expert view.
91. Much consultation uses traditional and top down approaches with few opportunities for local people to participate and to contribute in the early stages. The use of written draft documents distributed for comment is widespread.
92. There is an absence of a robust system which ensures that regular feedback is provided to those who contribute to consultation.
Performance Management Planning and Review Strengths
93. The council has successfully completed a large number of Best Value reviews and has ensured member involvement and ownership.
94. Attempts are being made to integrate the Best Value Performance Plan, known as the Oxfordshire Plan, and departmental service plans.
    
    
Issues to Consider


95. There is an absence of a corporate performance management framework that sets targets which relate to corporate priorities and are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-related), and ensures different levels of performance indicators are monitored regularly at different levels within the organisation.
96. It would appear that there is a lack of genuine commitment to the use of performance indicators in driving improvements. Most of the data collected relates to nationally required indicators with little consideration being given to local priorities.
97. Target setting appears to be haphazard and unrealistic. Some targets set are unachievable, for example the expected reduction in Social Services spending, others are set without complementary plans being made to achieve them, while others are set lower than current achievements. Consequently only 58 per cent of targets for Best Value Performance Indicators were achieved in 1999/2000.
98. There is a lack of a uniform standard approach to the development and production of departmental service plans. As a result the supporting linkages between the service plans and the Oxfordshire Plan are not evident.


People Management

Strengths


99. The council has a stable employment record with a large number of staff highly committed to delivering good quality services.
100. Staff acknowledge and appreciate the good employment practices offered to them, for example flexible working, job sharing, training and development opportunities, including secondments, regular appraisals, and the commitment to equal opportunities.
101. Relations with the unions are positive with opportunities for regular dialogue.
102. Recent joint member/officer seminars are helping to develop a joint approach to leadership at the top.
103. A weekly council newsletter for staff and councillors, The Post, is produced and published both in hard copy and on the intranet. It includes a range of local council news as well as job vacancies and staff small ads.
104. Staff surveys are conducted on a regular basis.


Issues to Consider


105. Many staff appear to feel undervalued and unchallenged. The discouragement of risk taking and the lack of stretching targets results in limited opportunities for them to extend their knowledge and expertise.
106. Some staff feel poor performance of senior managers, including the failure to implement agreed policy and decisions, is unchallenged. The 1999 Employee Survey also identified a perception of poor management "at the top".
107. Delayed information provision to frontline staff sometimes results in them being unable to respond to public inquiries for further information. For example, during the review week the local newspapers highlighted budget difficulties within Social Services and the consequent need to reduce service levels. Frontline staff were neither forewarned about this publicity nor given adequate information with which to respond to inquiries by anxious service users.
108. Recruitment and retention is a major challenge being faced by the council as a result of the buoyant economy of the local area. There is therefore a widespread view that salary levels need to be reviewed in order to address this problem.
109. The last recruitment and workforce monitoring report was produced in March 2000 and covered data collected in 1999. No subsequent report has been produced, partly because of the absence of a personnel management information system capable of easily producing such data. Consequently there is a lack of knowledge of the current composition of the workforce or turnover rates and an absence of any plans to address gaps.
110. Union representatives are not systematically involved in Best Value reviews. Their involvement could contribute, in particular, to the development of recommendations and help obtain their agreement to major changes which may affect their members.

112. Project management training has been offered to all managers.
113. The PRINCE project management system is used for all ICT projects.

114. There is not a clear recognition of the need to adopt a project management approach to implementing projects. Such an approach would ensure that, at the start, outcomes are defined, timescales agreed, adequate resources provided, and that monitoring and review systems are established. The lack of such an approach results in actions sometimes failing to follow agreed decisions.
Systems and Process Management Strengths
115. Trading Standards has achieved ISO 9002.
116. Equal opportunities monitoring systems are robust with records stretching back many years.
Issues to Consider
117. Due to the lack of investment in IT, there is currently a wide range of systems in operation across the council. Some are old fashioned and out-of-date while many are not compatible with each other. There is therefore an urgent need to invest in this area and to ensure systems are in place which both help staff carry out their work in the most efficient way and improve service delivery to the public. The new planned Management Information System will go some way to addressing this need.
118. There is an absence of a risk management policy across the council and this therefore needs development.


Financial Management

Strengths


119. The council has been successful in attracting external funding. Examples include over £0.5m obtained from the European Social Fund to support employment projects and two SRB bids obtained for Thames Valley Social Enterprises and Market Towns Regeneration.
120. A telephone survey on the budget for 2001/2001 was conducted by MORI who contacted over 1,000 residents.
121. A medium term Financial Plan has been agreed.


Issues to Consider


122. There is a need for a policy led approach to budget setting which will ensure a focus on agreed council priorities, avoid year on year difficulties being experienced by some key departments, such as Social Services, and ensure that services are prioritised according to available resources. Budgets are currently set based on long standing historical allocations to departments. The budget process was thus described as "a three month search for cuts".
123. Devolved financial management arrangements of recent years have resulted in the reliance on departments to manage their own budgets, without always having the necessary skills and commitment to do so effectively and weak central control.
124. There is a need for a corporate procurement policy which will provide greater opportunities to obtain services from the market more efficiently and at lower cost.

    Adele Wilter Review Manager Improvement and Development Agency

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